Felting

Today we went to a felting workshop. It was free. It was fun. When we eventually got there.

I had two TWO sets of directions and Tom-Tom. We went 20 MILES past the turn off on the dual carriageway because Tom-Tom was going to have a break down if we didn't do what he wanted. Turns out he was wrong and didn't have a clue. So we resorted to plan B, follow the downloaded instructions. These were slightly more successful in that they got us within a mile radius of the location, but a mile is a pretty large area when you are as stupid as we are.

The only shop I could find was the local chemist. I queued patiently behind a 95 year old woman who was discussing her new health regime with the pharmacist (whilst silently screaming in my head about how she was trying to avoid the inevitable - yes, I know I am evil, but I was nearing hysteria.) Then found out I was literally one minute and one left turn away.

We arrived just in time to miss the introduction and the history of felt making, which meant we were a bit in the dark about the process when we moved to the workshop from the fantastic gallery with lots of beautiful touchy-feely art - I don't know if you were supposed to touch, but some of the gorgeous creations were crying out for some gentle squishing.

So, we entered the workshop, and there in the middle of the large table was the biggest assortment of wool tops, in every colour you could ever want. Dotted about the edge of this was baskets of thread, wool and floss for you to add to your creation.

I was in felting heaven, and got a bit possessive and growley when OD tried to help me. Once I had created my masterpiece, it was time for the soap and water torture.

THE BEST STRESS RELIEVER EVER!!!

No, it wasn't my Mr Badman or Baroness Morgan standing in a corner whilst I threw soggy sponges at them. This was warm water and soap flakes, and then rolling up the soon-to-be felt, and rolling it like a possessed baker. You do this until the felt has shrunk and joined like magic to around a third of it's original size. I left there pink handed, the proud owner of a garish pink and purple felt creation, and completely stress free.